


Bleeding Memories

by Melime



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Adoribull Minibang 2015, Blood Magic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Psychological Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-14
Updated: 2015-09-14
Packaged: 2018-04-20 19:17:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4799237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The sight of blood in an intimate moment triggers an intense flashback, leaving Dorian in an emotionally vulnerable state.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bleeding Memories

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Memórias Sangrentas](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4799252) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf)



> My piece for the adoribull minibang 2015! With accompanying art by [Koutou](http://sometrashland.tumblr.com/). All the thanks to my lovely beta [feygrim](http://archiveofourown.org/users/feygrim/pseuds/feygrim), who also wrote an amazing fic for this mb you should check out. I chose to use italics for Tevene instead of trying to push my Latin to pass as Tevene to make the reading easier, since it's used a lot here (plus my Latin isn't all that good, unless Dorian wanted to talk about law).

“You’ll need to scratch harder than that if you want to leave marks.” Bull growled.

A challenge. Certainly, by now he would know what effect that would have on Dorian, especially during sex. In fact, he purposely avoided them since realizing that Dorian would ignore his safety and comfort just for the satisfaction of wining any challenge, and Bull disapproved of that kind of behavior. Doing the kind of things they did required a high level of trust and the certitude that all involved would be completely honest about their comfort. It was something they were still working on, but their relationship was evolving. However, it seemed like an innocent enough challenge for Bull to ignore his usual reluctance.

Dorian smirked, his messy mustache making his expression even sexier. “Oh really? I thought you liked to be the one who leaves marks.”

The comment won him a bite on the curve of his neck, low enough that it could be covered with the right choice of robes. Bull always did that, always gave him that choice. Despite his comments to their closest friends, he would generally give Dorian a choice of how much he wanted to admit, especially to people that he didn’t know so well. Although he was starting to open up to people whose reaction was easier to predict, Dorian still wasn’t willing to believe that everyone would accept their relationship so well. Bull knew that sometimes Dorian wished that the choice was made for him, that the rumors that spread around Skyhold became so significant that he wouldn’t need to decide if he wanted their relationship to be public, but Bull also knew that there was a difference between what a person wanted and what they needed. So he would take the first step, not making any effort to hide what happened and commenting with his small circle of friends, but Dorian would have to walk the rest of the way.

“Maybe I also want you to be a bit possessive,” he said after what seemed like an excessive long period of thinking, but in reality wasn’t more than a couple of seconds.

Dorian pinned his nails hard against Bull’s back, the lowest he could reach by passing his arms above Bull’s shoulders. “And tomorrow will you cover yourself or will you show to everyone that you are mine?” He marked the last word by pulling his nails towards the shoulders, leaving eight long scratches. They weren’t too deep, but the skin was breached, and had started to bleed. Bull moaned loud in a way that Dorian had never heard before, and sped up his movements, but Dorian didn’t know if it was because of the pain or because of his words. It was something he needed to explore later.

Concentrating was getting harder and harder. He moaned incoherently and kept scratching Bull’s back, but lighter now. Dorian closed his eyes, unable to meet Bull’s gaze, which was filled with a fondness that made him feel something he couldn’t quite describe, and exactly because of that, it made him uncomfortable. He didn’t know how to deal with this sort of feeling, and feared to think of what it may mean. Too many times he was mistaken about the nature of his partners’ feelings, and it wasn’t a mistake he was willing to make again.

When the first drop fell over his cheek, he didn’t even realize what had happened. It wasn’t so different from the sweat that also fell over him. Then a few others fell over his face, and when one landed over his lips and he tasted blood, he opened his eyes, panicked.

“Katoh,” Dorian whispered with his voice raw, while he still had some control over himself.

Bull got away quickly, but wasn’t quick enough to prevent Dorian from kicking and struggling. Even when he got out of his reach, Dorian had not stopped struggling, as if his reaction was completely detached from Bull’s presence. It wasn’t a good sign and Bull knew it.

Dorian started rubbing his face frenetically, staring panicked at his bloodstained hands. In his eyes, he was covered in blood, even if in actuality only a few drops had fallen over him. Dorian could see the liquid expand and drop from his face and hands to the rest of his body and the bed; the more he tried to clean himself, the more the blood seemed to spread. Dorian was whispering to himself in Tevene so quickly and in such a low voice that Bull had some trouble to understand him, despite being fluent in it. He was talking about blood magic and begging for mercy.

Bull had promised that, if Dorian used that word, there would be no questions asked, but he couldn’t leave him like that, yet couldn’t help without knowing what was happening. It was the first time Dorian used his watchword, and Bull didn’t want to start by disrespecting the rules he himself had established. He would rather Dorian ask for help and let him know what he could do, but also knew Dorian was in no condition to do that. He knew a panic attack by his own experience and knew Dorian may not be able to ask for help. Finally, he settled for a compromise. “Dorian, is there anything I can do to help you?” Bull asked calmly, not letting his voice betray his emotional state. When Dorian didn’t give any indication of acknowledging his presence, Bull started worrying even more. After considering his possible moves only for a moment, he repeated the question the same way in Tevene.

Dorian looked at him as if it was the first time he had saw him, and answered still in Tevene, “It’s on me, if… if he… he can… if the… he will…” Dorian was shaking, and his voice could barely be heard. “Wipe it… wipe it off me… wipe it off me! WIPE IT OFF ME!” Dorian started screaming and struggling again, and Bull had to hold him to keep him from getting hurt. Dorian struggled to get out of Bull’s arms, but in the state he was in, he would never be able to escape Bull’s grasp. It was also something that Bull wouldn’t normally do, and he cussed at himself for his decision, although he couldn’t find another way to protect Dorian.

Having realized that the blood was the cause of Dorian’s distress, Bull grabbed a cloth from the nightstand, dampened it in the bowl he kept there, and started wiping off the blood. That seemed to have a calming effect on Dorian, but his breathing was still uneven.

Bull was almost thinking that maybe he had succeeded in calming him down, when Dorian looked up and saw the blood on Bull’s shoulders. Having caught him by surprise, Dorian managed to escape his arms and nearly jumped from the bed. Dorian crossed the room running and hid curled behind one of the chests and the wall. “No, no, no, no, no. You are on his side! It’s on you too. If it’s on you he can control you. You are with him. No, no, no, please, don’t hurt me!” Dorian screamed desperately in Tevene, but so fast that he was stumbling over the words, and his voice was muffled since his face was buried in between his arms and his knees, so Bull almost couldn’t understand him.

Bull felt his chest tighten. This was his fault, he was hurting Dorian. The scratches on his back had already stopped bleeding, weren’t too deep, but the dry blood was still evident. He wiped his own back, trying to remove as much as possible. Even though he couldn’t check, he knew the cuts were almost closed, but would probably be deeply red. Not wanting to scare Dorian even further, he grabbed a shirt from a chest on the other side of the room, dressed quickly with pants and shirt, and slowly approached the spot in which Dorian was hiding. All of that, from the moment Dorian pushed away from him, hadn’t last more than a couple minutes, but it seemed like forever to leave him alone like that.

Dorian was shaking and crying, and yet again seemed to be blocking the world around him. Whatever he was reliving in his mind, it was stronger than the present, so much so that Dorian seemed unable to hear anything that wasn’t his native language, and Bull knew it would be a mistake to allow him to stay inside his mind like that.

“Dorian, look, there’s no more blood on me, it’s alright, he can’t control me,” he said, still in Tevene.

Dorian looked up suspicious, but not seeing blood anymore, tossed himself into Bull’s arms. He had never seen Dorian in such a vulnerable state before; Bull hugged him, trying to ignore the unknown pain that he felt in his chest. Qunari don’t love, but he wasn’t a Qunari anymore and there were many things he didn’t understood about love, except this was not the time to think about it. He needed to worry about Dorian’s condition, not his own feelings.

“We’re still in danger, he can still catch us.” His voice kept the urgency, and he was still shaking in Bull’s arms.

“It’s alright, I won’t let him do anything to you, I’ll protect you.” But Bull didn’t know how. There wasn’t much he could do against trauma, especially one such as this. Without knowing the details of what Dorian was revisiting, he feared saying the wrong thing and making the situation worse.

“You can’t protect me, he’s too powerful and is using blood magic, there’s nothing we can do against him.”

Dorian was more coherent, what Bull hoped was a good sign, but Bull still didn’t know how to bring him back to reality.

“You are a powerful mage, more powerful than he is, I’ll be your barrier; you can defeat him.”

“No, I can’t!” It had been the wrong thing to say, Bull knew it by the way Dorian started struggling against him again, agitated. “I can’t hurt him, he’s my father, I can’t hurt him!”

That complicated matters. Bull knew that Dorian’s relationship with his father was complicated to say the least, but wasn’t aware of the details. Dorian had chosen not to speak of it when they came back from Redcliff, and Bull had honored said wish. He thought he would be able to talk about it with Dorian when and if Dorian was ready, but now he regretted not having information that could be vital to helping Dorian.

“You won’t need to, Dorian, it’s alright, you won’t need to hurt him. You can protect yourself, just protect yourself, no one needs to get hurt. You are an amazing mage, I’ve saw your barriers withstand dragon attacks, no one can touch you. It’s going to be alright.”

“Adralla. The Litany of Adralla. You have to repeat it with me, and then we’ll be protected. While we keep repeating it, his magic won’t work on us.”

And so they did. The first time, Bull repeated the words right after Dorian, trying to learn them by heart. From the second on, they were in perfectly synchronized. The repetition seemed to calm Dorian, perhaps even more than the protection those words were supposed to give him. Bull lost count of how many times they repeated the litany, but eventually Dorian went quiet. He settled himself better against Bull’s chest, and seemed calmer, so Bull also stopped his words and allowed silence to settle between them.

As soon as they stopped the litany, Bull started counting his own breathing. Inspiring for seven seconds, expiring for eleven. He didn’t need to tell Dorian to do the same, their breathing was already synchronized because of the chanting, and in the state Dorian was, searching for comfort and next to Bull’s chest, to keep the synchronization was natural. They stayed like this for several minutes, in silence, Bull sitting on the floor and Dorian on his lap and against his chest. Eventually, Bull started caressing Dorian’s hair, trying to comfort him somehow and help him get out of the mental state he still was in.

“I think I owe you an explanation,” Dorian said after a long while, and it was a relief to Bull to hear him finally letting go of Tevene.

Bull sighed. “You don’t owe me anything, Dorian, you never owed me anything. I’ve told you already that if you used your watchword, there would be no questions asked,” He hesitated for a moment before continuing, “but, if you want to talk about what happened, I would appreciate your trust. The choice is yours, and I won’t judge you either way.”

Dorian remained silent for a few moments more; sometimes, he really wished Bull would pressure him more, that he wouldn’t give him so much freedom to choose. It was easier to give in than to have to take the initiative to give. Choosing meant being responsible for the consequences and that was something he didn’t want to be, but despite what Bull had just said, it didn’t seem fair to him not offering any justification. Then, without looking at Bull, he started talking. “Maybe you have heard something about my father, about how he planned on using blood magic to make me change, to make me stop preferring the company of men, or yet, to make me acquiesce to the idea of an arranged marriage. It didn’t happen exactly like that, it wasn’t just a plan. I never thought he would be able to do something like this. He was always against blood magic, always taught me that it was a line I should never cross, and I believed him. I would never have imagined that… that he would…” His voice failed and his started hiccuping. He had never spoke aloud of what had happened, not in detail. Not even the Inquisitor knew exactly what his father had done, and he wasn’t sure he was ready to talk about it.

Bull was drawing circles on his back, trying to offer some comfort. “Go easy, Dorian. There’s no need to push it. You don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to, not now, not ever.”

Again, Dorian caught himself wishing Bull wouldn’t give him an out. He wanted to trust him, wanted to tell him what had happened, but it wasn’t an easy choice. “I… I want you to know. But I also don’t want to. I don’t want you to know that my family isn’t better than all those stories of maleficarum that the rest of Thedas spreads about Tevinter, and I don’t want you to know how naïve I was, and how I ended up a victim when I should have known what was going to happen.”

Bull pushed Dorian away from his body, but only enough to look at him. “The choice is yours, but I don’t care about what your family did, they could have come out straight from all those horror stories I heard as a child and that still wouldn’t tell me anything about who you are. And whatever happened, it’s not your fault for having trusted your father. You can tell me, or you may not tell me, in any case, it’s going to be alright.”

Dorian got near Bull again, hiding his face against Bull’s chest; he couldn’t do this while feeling the penetrating gaze reading his features. He still took a moment before starting, but once the words started flowing, he was surprised by how easy it was to keep speaking. “One second I was at my room, drinking a cup of tea and reading a book, the next I was tied to the ground. I think I was so absorbed by the reading that I ended up drinking too little of the tea, maybe this was what saved me,” he laughed, although his laugh sounded stressed, “You know how I get when I have a good book in my hands. At first, I couldn’t understand what was happening. I couldn’t recognize where I was, and my head was throbbing. Then my father showed up, with a bowl full of blood, too much to be of just one victim, or at least of one who had survived. I wanted to ask him what he was doing, but then he started throwing the blood at me and I panicked. The candles in the room blew up, the fire started spreading, and I took my chance and ran. I was very lucky to not have drank all the poison, I’m sure that part of the effect was supposed to be mana blockage. I ran away without carrying anything, and didn’t look back until I left Minrathous. Maybe that wasn’t my most brilliant hour, but I was desperate to escape.”

Bull felt his blood boil. He knew this kind of practice was common among the Tevinter Altus, but hadn’t imagined that Dorian’s situation had been this bad. He wanted to rip that bastard to pieces with his own hands and teeth for daring to hurt his son like this, but what Dorian needed now wasn’t uncontrolled rage. Bull used the best of his training to repress what he was feeling, and for the first time he found it to be not completely effective, but spoke even so, because Dorian needed him to say something. “Thank you for trusting me, Dorian. I’m sorry that you had to go through this, please tell me if there’s anything I can do for you.”

Dorian frowned, there was something weird with that tone of voice, and Bull’s body was tense, and his jaw was locked, he was obviously hiding something. “Don’t do this to me, don’t hide what you are thinking, tell me what you really want to say.”

Bull sighed. “Honestly? If I had known this before, I would have killed your father in that bar. Before he could hurt you again.” There was an aggression there that Dorian wasn’t used to hearing from Bull, it wasn’t like the way he loved a good battle, it was pure hatred.

Dorian wiped his tears with Bull’s shirt. “No…actually, I wouldn’t want him to die. Despite everything, he still is my father. I hate him for what he’s done and would like to never see him again, but would also like that one day we could go back to, I don’t know… Things between us had started going wrong long before, I don’t know when, but at some point we had a good relationship, and it’s something I would very much like to be able to get back, even knowing that’s impossible now. I know this doesn’t make any sense, but I can’t help feeling this way.”

“If this is what you want, then I promise you that I won’t do anything against him. The choice is yours, the choice is always yours. I won’t pretend I understand what you are feeling, but I don’t need to think that what you feel makes sense to respect it.”

Dorian knew he couldn’t remain there. He had arrived at Bull’s bedroom early, but surely hours had passed since then. He never stayed that long, although he didn’t know if by an unsaid agreement between them or by a self-imposed obligation, but the fact was that it was getting late, and he needed to go back to his own room. It wasn’t the first time he wished to stay, but it was the first time he felt so vulnerable. He needed to get up now, escape Bull’s warm embrace before it was too late, or he wouldn’t be able to leave, and he feared that this would ruin what they had. Too many times he had made the mistake of getting too close just to be rejected, it wasn’t a mistake he wanted to make again. He couldn’t make this mistake again.

Dorian got up and was looking around for his clothes, but still he lacked any desire to leave. “Do you think I could stay a little longer?” Dorian asked by impulse, immediately regretting his words, but Bull responded before he had a chance to take back what was said.

“You were always welcome for as long as you wished, Dorian. My door is always open to you, and I don’t mean just for sex.”

Dorian didn’t know how to deal with the way those simple words made him feel, so he decided not to deal with it. Ignoring his own feelings was already a survival strategy. “So do you think we can get back to bed? We already spend too much time on the floor when we aren’t at Skyhold.”

Bull got up from the floor, a bit bothered by his bad knee and the time he spent on that position. “Alright, just let me change the sheets first.”

Dorian didn’t look at the bed, he knew that there wasn’t really any blood there and he felt better now, but he didn’t want to risk it. This had been his worse crisis since the days he was still trying to get away from the Imperium, so he was taken by surprise. He would like for Bull to hurry up, Dorian had no idea how to act in this kind of situation, standing naked in the middle of someone else’s room, waiting….for what? The whole experience was new to him, he didn’t know how to act and that made him even more uncomfortable. Luckily, Bull caught up on that.

“I have some clothes in that chest there on the corner, they’ll be too big to you, but they’re clean and more comfortable than that cluster of buckles you call clothing,” he said while tossing the used sheets on a corner.

Dorian didn’t want to wear Bull’s clothes, but it was something to distract himself and at least like this he wouldn’t be naked while Bull was more dressed than he had seen him since the ball in Val Royeaux. Like Bull had said, they were too big for him. He chose only a shirt, with a collar so wide that it kept falling from one of his shoulders, and long enough to fall down his thighs. When he was done dressing, Bull had already finished doing the bed.

Dorian didn’t know what to say, so reverted to his usual defense of complaining. “It’s cold.”

Bull smiled, it was comforting seeing Dorian acting so normally. “Come to bed, I think I have some blankets somewhere around here.”

He did just that, climbed in bed and sat holding his legs against his chest, sitting near the edge, knowing by experience that this was the only way for both of them to fit in such small space. Bull frowned when he saw Dorian in that position, but didn’t say anything. Bull brought the blankets and laid next to Dorian, raising an arm as an invitation for Dorian to get closer. When Dorian cuddled against him, Bull placed the blankets over the both of them. They stayed like that for a while; the room was getting dark as the few candles burned out. It was peaceful, and Dorian wondered why they had never done it before.

“You must think I’m pretty pathetic, right?” Dorian asked with a dry laugh.

Bull pressed him against his chest, caressing his back. “No, Dorian, of course not. You managed to escape from a magister while drugged, left behind everything you knew and crossed Thedas alone, and when you got here, you challenged another powerful magister and joined the Inquisition to save the world from things that should only exist in legends, you risk your life almost daily and dedicate most of your free time researching how to defeat our enemy. You are one of the strongest and bravest people I know, and being affected by your past doesn’t change that, it’s only natural.”

“It makes me weak.”

Bull hesitated for a moment. Under the Qun, if a trauma was considerable enough to be a problem, the only option was to give themselves to the Ben-Hassrath, not talking about it and sharing personal experiences. He had never told anyone about the specifics of what led him to request reeducation, but Dorian had also shared a painful part of his past with him, so it seemed fair that he would do the same. “Do you think I am weak?”

Dorian got up slightly to see Bull’s face, and his expression was one of confusion. “No, but what does that have to do with anything?”

“The war, it did things to me. Seeing enemies everywhere takes a high toil. I was a good warrior, until the paranoia became more than I was willing to take. The last drop was… I was at an inn, a place I knew well enough to know it was safe. I was sleeping, and an elven servant came to wake me up. She was such a tiny girl, so fragile and delicate. Sometimes, I still play it over in my head, trying to understand how it could have happened. I think that when she tried to wake me up, she must have scared me; all I know for sure is that when I woke up she was pinned to the wall by my axe, practically cut in half. I couldn’t live with what I had done, I simply gave up. I thought of letting myself be killed in battle, but I didn’t want to give any of those ‘vints the pleasure. So I gave myself to the Ben-Hassrath to reeducation before I did something irreversible. They broke me, and then put me back together. You are stronger than I am, Dorian, because you faced what happened to you instead of looking for a way to run from your problems. Our circumstances were quite different, but that doesn’t change the fact that you still have to live with what happened to you, while I chose that the pain of what I did to be taken from me. What I said before is true, Dorian. You are strong and brave, and I have great admiration for you.”

Dorian had kept his gaze fixed on Bull during the entire story, but had now hidden his face against his chest to hide the fact that he was blushing. He wanted to say something to comfort Bull over what he had suffered, but he couldn’t take the last words out of his head. “I hate when you keep doing these things that only make me love you more, you big lummox,” he said before realizing what he was saying with those words. “I mean, it’s just an expression, it doesn’t mean that I…”

Bull felt his heart race. It was a reaction he didn’t expect, at least not in this way. This wasn’t a confession, it was something that Dorian had let slip. Normally, he would let Dorian take back his words, because he obviously wasn’t ready to say them. But not today, not after the intimacy they had shared, not after he realized that those simple words were enough to make his heart jump in his chest. He needed to say something, but ‘I love you too’ didn’t seem good enough, not when he couldn’t yet define the nature of his own feelings. Between knowing what he felt and being able to name it there was a world of difference, but he couldn’t remain silent. “Dorian…”

Before he could utter any more words, Dorian got up from the bed. Bull didn’t stop him, he wouldn’t force Dorian to stay if he didn’t want to. “No, you don’t need to say it; I know I just ruined everything. I’m leaving now, you won’t need to trouble yourself kicking me out, I already know how this works,” Dorian said while getting his own clothes.

“Dorian, please, listen to me.”

Dorian stopped getting his clothes, but still held the ones he had already retrieved. “Whatever you want to say, you can be sure I’ve already heard it, this isn’t the first time I’ve made this kind of mistake. So no need to work yourself over it, this way it will be less embarrassing to both of us.”

It wasn’t the first time Dorian had said something like this, and it always made Bull want to hunt down all that men that hurt him like that and make them regret it, but this time his anger was seasoned with pain, because he knew that Dorian thought Bull would also hurt him like that. “No, I don’t think you ever heard this before. Under the Qun, loving someone is extremely frowned upon, so it’s not something I had thought about in the past.”

“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.”

“But I want to, please, let me do this.”

Dorian rolled his eyes, he didn’t want to hear about how his feelings couldn’t be reciprocated and that yet again he had been a fool for wanting more than he could have. He should have learn by now that love was an inconvenient feeling and should be repressed. But Bull seemed determined to say something, so Dorian supposed he would have to stand that before he could go back to his room and lick his wounds. He indicated that Bull should go on.

“When I left the Qun, I had so much to worry about, so many things changing, that I didn’t have enough time to think about it. I can’t say I had one big revelation moment, but I started realizing that what I felt for you was different. I don’t know how to call it, but I care for you, enough to spend hours at the library watching you read, committing to memory all of your mannerisms and making sure that you don’t spend too long researching and forget to eat and sleep; I like spending time with you, and not just because of the amazing sex we have; I like hearing you complain about everything and knowing half the time you don’t mean it; I like watching you drink Fereldan beer when you forget to pretend you don’t like it; I like how you are always surprising me, and like the way you relax when we are alone; but my heart aches when I see you hiding who you are or what you like for fear of being judged or for not being able to live up to the idea you have of how you should be; and when someone mistreats you or distrusts you for being a mage or a ‘vint, I want to rip them in half with my own hands for hurting you. I could keep going, but I think you get where I’m going. If this is love, then I love you.” Bull hadn’t planned that speech, but once he started saying everything, because he was letting Dorian set the pace of their relationship, he couldn’t stop anymore.

Dorian felt his eyes water, but had decided not to cry. At some point, he had dropped his clothes, and cared so little for them that he didn’t even noticed when he stepped over them to get to the bed. He knelt between Bull’s legs and framed Bull’s face with his hands. “Fasta vass. It’s not a fucking competition, but you had to go and win it. Always saying just the right thing to make me fall in love with you even more.”

Dorian had failed in keeping away the tears, but couldn’t care. He kissed Bull passionately, trying to find a way to show what he couldn’t say with words. Years of internalized prejudices and bad experiences with previous lovers wouldn’t disappear in a blink of an eye, but he wanted to be able to give Bull a love declaration like the one he had gotten.

When they needed to split up for air, Bull spoke first. “Stay here tonight. You don’t need to, but if you want to, I would like you to stay.”

Dorian bit his lower lip. It was something that went against the system he had built and kept him somewhat protected during all these years, but the truth was he wanted to stay. He wanted to know what was like not to need to run away, and wake up next to someone who wouldn’t care about his ruined makeup, his messy hair or his morning bad mood. Finally, he made up his mind. “Well, it is rather cold out there.”

“It really is, and the bed is so warm,” Bull said, letting him get away with it this time.

“Then I think maybe I could stay, at least until I manage to get warmer.” He laid down again next to Bull. Dorian never stopped imagining that one day he would fall in love, but he didn’t expect it was for someone like Bull, and now, he didn’t want imagine how his life would be if he hadn’t met him. Maybe this was something he could have.

“You know how the winters in Skyhold get, it may take a long while until it gets warm again,” Bull said while caressing Dorian’s hair.

“I wouldn’t mind that at all,” Dorian said, and he wasn’t talking about the cold.


End file.
